CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. (CLARKSVILLENOW) – Clarksville High and Montgomery Central baseball kicked off the 2020 campaign Monday at Vanderbilt University’s Hawkins Field.
The Wildcats jumped out early and ran away late, taking the season opener over the Indians, 9-2.
Starting out a year on the right foot is always a plus, but Clarksville baseball coach Brian Hetland believes that there were a few other positives that the unique experience provided for his team overall.
“It’s a great place to come and play for the kids and for both teams it’s a once in a lifetime thing,” Hetland said. “It’s just great for the guys to be able to come here and play in one of the premier places in the country. That part of it is really neat. We also get to come pay tribute to our former player Donny Everett when we come here and that’s a big part of it too.”
CHS controlled the contest through most of its entirety, but the Indians made it a game in the top of the third inning. Trailing 3-0, Central pushed across two runs, as Brady Devers and Reagan Traylor came home to score on a walk and a Garrett Taylor RBI-single. The Indians eventually left the bases loaded, failing to capitalize on a potentially big inning.
In the bottom of the third frame, Kyle Magrans deposited a solo home run over the left-field wall to give the Wildcats a 4-2 lead. The junior shared postgame what it was like to accomplish a feat most high schoolers can only dream of.
“It’s just awesome,” Magrans said of the hit. “I know the inning before was kind of long and our guys seemed to lose a little intensity there, so it just felt great being able to bring the energy back for the team.”
Hetland discussed the resilience Mangrans showed by quickly putting the corky frame behind him on the bump and handling his business at the plate.
“It was a fluke inning,” Hetland said. “We had an error at first because he missed the bag according to the call that was made. We thought he clipped the side of it and didn’t want to run into the runner. It was what it was, but we settled in and held through and that was the key. We didn’t let that thing blow up. Kyle comes back in, hits a huge home run and I thought that was a big momentum changer for us. Then we kind of added to it and got to the relief later on.”
Magrans finished with 4 1/3 innings pitched, allowing two runs on four hits while striking out nine.
“I felt like it was a good start for the season,” Magrans said of his outing. “Everything was working good today. We’re just going to keep getting better and the team will do great.”
As a newly upperclassman, Magrans says he wants to become more of a leader on and off the field for his teammates.
“I think it has changed,” Magrans said of his role in the locker room. “Some of the underclassmen look up to us and we help them with rides and stuff like that. We just have to lead them in the right direction and keep doing what we do.”
Clarksville opened up the game in the latter innings, as Garrison Goins laced one down the right-field line for an RBI-double in the bottom of the fifth. The Wildcats tacked on two more runs in the bottom of the sixth frame on a Gavin Baxter two-run base hit.
Magrans along with Ryan Wolfe and Jameston Powell gave the Wildcats quality innings on the mound in the opener. Hetland spoke in depth about how his team can continue to overcome the loss of arms graduated a season ago.
“We lost a lot of pitching from last year,” Hetland said. “Those guys have been good this spring and Wolfe’s been really good for us. I have a lot of confidence in him and when he stays within himself, he can throw that breaking ball and get some sink on his fastball. We have Pennington (Ethan) going tomorrow who’s a senior we expect big things out of. He and Kyle should be our mainstays starting two guys a week and then Wolfe is going to be the swing guy that can go two days in a row some weeks and things of that nature. We’ll just see how it kind of shakes out.”
Nate Barksdale went 3-for-4 with two RBIs and two runs scored while Gavin Baxter finished 2-for-4 with two RBIs and a run scored for the Wildcats.
Traylor led the Indians with two hits in four at-bats followed by Devers who also reached base twice with a single and a walk.
The two teams will square off again Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. with Montgomery Central (0-1) hosting Clarksville (1-0).